


secrets i have held in my heart / are harder to hide than i thought

by tinyysnark



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (one of my all time faves), Alternate Universe - College/University, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Friends With Benefits, Ice Cream Dates, M/M, POV Tony Stark, Propaganda Posters, Secret Relationship, Sharing beds, also lifeguard AU (summer jobs!!), and last but not least, christmas gifts!!, got wayyy too much info on frats now, laser tag dates, library study dates (they just don’t know it), rival fraternity presidents AU, staring at each other across the room, steve rogers’ abs, the boys read jane austen!, the summer!!, tony LOVES his friends!!, tony do be making a lot of lists, tony is a history nerd, tonynat gossip at parties
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:48:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25427944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyysnark/pseuds/tinyysnark
Summary: Rule #1. Tony absolutely  could not fall in love with Steve Rogers. He was the sworn enemy, not to mention the whole ass president of his rival fraternity. Plus their whole arrangement was just of convenience. It did not mean anything. Or at least that’s what Tony’s trying to convince himself.or: the story of steve rogers and tony stark.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 7
Kudos: 33





	1. it’s okay to disagree / we don’t have to be friends

**Author's Note:**

> 1) uhh, i randomly decided to write this fic,,, it’s my first one i have ever written and extremely self indulgent and very long (that’s why i split it up into chapters, it was about to be a VERY LONG one shot)
> 
> 2) the only reason i wrote this was to get it out of my head (it was basically my maladaptive daydreaming scenario, i sorta just changed it a lil to fit stevetony) it was living in my head tent free, so I wrote it.
> 
> 3) title of the fic is from artic monkeys — i wanna be yours

————————

_Present Day_

It’s basically a bisexual’s birthright to make lists. At least, Tony always made lists, mostly in his head. All the important lists get written down in his notebook. Tony knew he was in deep shit now that he was going to make this list. He needed to focus more in class. Instead, all Tony could do was think about _him_. So he made a list. After staring at the paper for a couple of minutes, he finally wrote WHY YOU CAN NOT BE IN LOVE WITH STEVE ROGERS. He proceeded to stare at the paper even longer then got his highlighter to underline the whole sentence. 

1) He is a fucking dick.   
2) He has horrible taste in music.  
3) He is a part of your rival frat also the president of the said frat.  
4) He is hosting a party at his house on the same day as yours. (see: reason number one)   
5) This whole arrangement is just for convenience.  
6) He thinks I am a stuck up, cocky bastard.  
7) He eventually will get bored of me and leave, like everyone else.  
8) He has a whole plan for his future. I have no idea what I am going to be doing two days from now.

Tony makes another list, this one much smaller, only to get all the shit outside of his head. In all uppercase, he writes REASONS WHY YOU CAN BE IN LOVE WITH STEVE ROGERS.

1) He makes me laugh.   
2) His competence is really sexy. (okay, so I have a competency kink)  
3) He makes me want to be a better person- with him I feel like I am special—

He rips the page out of his notebook and carefully hides it in his textbook, then puts it in a drawer. He would deal with this whole mess later. He did not have enough time to unpack this. 

————————

_Present Day_

The next day he decided he would deal with number four on his list. 

“That absolute son of a bitch.” Tony started as he sat on the couch in the living room. “Not only are they hosting a party the same day as us, now they're doing the same theme as us?”

Rhodey shrugged from where he was standing in the kitchen. “Don’t worry your little pretty head over this, they can’t compete when they compare.”

Tony got up from the couch and walked towards him, he put his hands on his shoulders. “ _Bro_ you're missing the whole point, it’s the thought, the principle, the idea of—”

Rhodey raised an eyebrow and began to cut him off. “How long have you been in your lab for, I think you need to get a nice eight hours of sleep and calm the hell down.”

“I’m going to go over there right the fuck now and give Rogers a piece of my mind.” 

“Oh, so you want to get jumped?” 

“Honeybear, you wound me, I mean, what’s he going to do, hide in his room from me? I’ll corner the guy and he will simply have no room to escape.”

Tony might be a lot of things but he always kept his word, as soon as the sun was down, he grabbed his sweater and stormed off on Greek Row. He was fuming until he came to the house with New England’s very own golden boy. He knew Steve’s window right away and started to yell. “Listen, you piece of shit, we need to talk, come down right now.” He picked up a rock proceeding to chuck it at the window. 

Tony saw other members of the fraternity looking at him through the window. He started to get winded up ready to yell at them too—

“You are making a scene, Christ’s sake, Tony, what are you even doing?” Tony stands with his mouth open about to start another yell when he sees him. 

Steve was standing in the doorway, in sweats and barefoot. Tony takes a look. Sure enough, there was the blue-eyed-hottie wearing his medium red t-shirt. The shirt he had torn his entire room upside down to find. God, he should have known that Steve had taken it hostage. It was unfair how hot he looked while just wearing comfortable clothes. _Focus_ , Tony, reminded himself. He was not going to allow himself to dwell on how Steve looked wearing his clothes. _Nope_ , not today. 

He lets his breath, drops his arms. “Let me in, we need to have a chat.” The guys from Steve’s frat have already left the window deciding the show was not entertaining enough for them. 

Steve sighs as if it is a burden to have a simple conversation with the president of a fraternity that was only a couple houses down. “Okay, come in.” 

“Oh, golly gee, my good sir, thank you for such kindness,” he says pointedly glaring at Steve. He leads the way in, stopping at the entrance to talk to the previous window watchers. “Tony and I will be having a civilized talk upstairs. If you hear screaming after 5 minutes, mind your own business,” Rogers says to his members as they walk upstairs. As they make their way to Steve’s bedroom he whispers to Tony, “We’ve got to be careful okay, be quiet.”

They walked silently beside each other as they made it to the second last door on the left. As soon as Steve closed the door, Tony shoved him against the wood. Steve let out a yelp. 

“Oh, what was it you were saying, something about being quiet?” Tony asked.

“You are so infuriating,” Steve whispered as his lips were grazing at Tony’s lips, waiting for Tony to make the first move to initiate the kiss. 

Tony pushed off of him and took a step back. “We need to talk, Steven.” He said sternly. Steve looked at him innocently. “Hey, stop looking at me like that, I’m serious and you know exactly what I am going to yell at you about.” 

Steve looked at him through his eyelashes and took a step closer to Tony. “Hi serious, let’s fuck.” As he grasped Tony’s hand and intertwined their hands together. 

Tony groaned. “Steven, I am going to let that shit slide. Now to the important part, you know we do that fucking party everyday single year. We are known for hosting the Beer Olympics _every year_ , and as if having a party the same day as us isn’t bad already, you are also hosting a Beer Olympics? The same fucking theme?”

Steve sniffed, “You do need to stop with all the swearing, also would you believe me if I told you this was all a big coincidence?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Change the date.”

“It’s a little late for that, we already have a DJ booked.”

Once again Tony rolled his eyes. He looked at their hands intertwined together. “Why are you doing this?”

Steve looked at him surprised. “Well obviously, I wanted to mess with you, now can we please have sex.” 

Tony glared at him. “You know with all the stress you are causing me, I am going to say no and leave now, thank you very much.” He tried to get his hand out of Steve’s embrace. 

Steve smiles at him cruelly and tugged him closer till their chests were bumping into each other. “Throwing rocks at my bedroom window, very romantic of you, Tony.” 

“Oh shut up, Rogers. Just kiss me already.” 

Suddenly Steve was on him in a heartbeat, kissing him deeply and very quickly, his hands already finding the hem of his shirt and lifting it off of him. His shirt went away. He grabbed at Steve’s— no, he remembered this was his shirt that the motherfucker had stolen and tugged at it. “That’s a stupid-ass shirt your wearing.” 

Quickly, Steve raised an eyebrow. “I am assuming, this is when you say ‘But it would look better on my floor?’” He asked.

Tony stared at him. “No, it’s just a stupid-ass shirt, _period_.” God, Tony wanted to slap himself. What was it about Rogers that made him just forget how to act and speak? What was he even saying, it was _HIS_ stupid ass shirt. 

Steve laughed and fuck he needed to add that to the list, #4-the sound of his laugh when I say something so stupid. 

Steve sank to his knees. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but it’s _your_ stupid ass shirt.” 

Tony huffed. “All I’m saying is, it definitely looks better on me.” Steve then took off his shirt and wow. Steve. Seeing him shirtless always reminded him of that summer. The _summer_ that was the trigger for this whole situation. The summer where Tony saw Steve everyday, and they would get ice cream and try to beat each other at laser tag. Everything was so simple. 

Steve slid his hands over Tony’s thighs to cup his ass. Steve took off Tony’s boxers and leaned forward, licking him. Tony felt like he was flying. Steve made him feel like he was soaring through the air. Steve opened wide against the underside of Tony’s cock and started to suck. He held him in his throat as Tony began whimpering, “Oh, God, oh. You’re gonna make — holy shit, I’m going to come.” Steve squeezed his thigh, and Tony lost control and coated Steve’s lips and tongue.

Tony realized that Steve hadn’t gotten off yet. “Fuck, wait, let me.” As he saw Steve’s left hand rubbing desperately through his worn-in sweats. Tony pulled out of Steve’s mouth and joined him on the ground. He shoved Steve until his back hit the ground, he pulled off his sweats followed by his boxers and sucked him down in one move. Tony saw Steve was about to come and suddenly remembered that they were not alone, what if Steve’s housemates heard them? He quickly pulled Steve’s hand and curled it into a fist and brought it to Steve’s mouth. Luckily, Steve got the idea and bit his fist as he came. Tony swallowed everything and saw Steve’s expression all soft and rested.

Steve panted, his breaths coming in short waves, “Jesus.”

He spoke. God, his voice was absolutely wrecked. “Oh wow, so embarrassing, my name is actually Tony.”

Steve looked at him, playfully slapped his shoulder. “So, how about I try to persuade you to change the date of _your_ party?”

Tony just stares at him, blinking rapidly. Unaware of how to process such a controversial sentence. The audacity of this man. The fucking audacity. “Steven Grant Rogers,” Tony declares, “You, my good sir, are an idiot if you think I would ever be persuaded to do that.” 

Steve chuckles. “So, since we are both doing The Beer Olympics what country are you representing?” 

Tony looks over at him, “Italy, baby.” He gets up and retrieves his clothes. He looked at Steve with an eyebrow raised. As if asking him the same question.

Steve started laughing lightly. “Guess you will have to come to our party to find out.” He looked back to Tony with a smirk.

Tony wanted to so badly kiss that smirk away, but restrained himself. “May the best party win.” 

After the summer, they had been careful. Only did this when everyone was drunk or at a party. Sleeping with each other while everyone was downstairs, was risky. They had even gone to hotels, just to get off. Now that Tony understood that if they had an excuse to talk in Steve’s bedroom the more, he was definitely going to use it more often.

Steve stands up from the ground, “I'll help sneak you out.” They descend the stairs, past the living room, and make their way to the front door. Tony had got to be the unluckiest person because just as Steve touched the doorknob, Clint Barton entered the house and narrowed his eyes at the sight of Tony. “The fuck are you doing here.” He exclaimed.

Tony glared back. “Rogers, would you be a doll and call off your guard dog?” 

Steve looked between them. “It’s fine, Clint. We just had a very adult, civilized, mature conversation about the coincidence of our party’s falling on the same day.” 

“Not to mention the same theme.” Tony said accusingly, “Whatever, I’m leaving I hate the energy in this house, y’all should consider burning sage,” he said as he opened the door and walked out. 

————————

_One year earlier_   
_First Term (September-December)_

_September_

In theory, it wasn’t Tony’s fault. If anything this was all the cause of the _butterfly effect_. If Rhodey hadn’t convinced Tony to go to the bar that was around the corner. Centerpointe was the hotspot for everyone who went to college. And if he hadn’t seen _him_. The demographic of the bar were all students who were trying to forget the stress of classes. As soon as Rhodey and Tony were entering, two boys were leaving. Two very, cute boys. The first one was Tony’s type to a T. His head was thrown back, laughing boisterously. Tall, check. Blond hair, check. Gorgeous smile, check. What else could a guy want? 

Unfortunately for Tony, this guy was leaving, not to mention with another guy. Although that part could easily be understood, a brother, maybe a cousin, could be a roommate. So, Tony was in a sour mood. He wanted to be the one to leave with that Greek god lookalike. Weirdly, Rhodey glared at these two boys, as if they offended his bloodline. Tony wondered why as he pushed through the crowd. Tony admitted defeat, he would never see Greek god again. This guy was straight up an Apollo look-alike. This guy was honestly the Greek god of sun, light, and music.

Rhodey noticed Tony’s pissy mood, granted it was after a whole round of shots when he decided to finally bring it up. Rhodey becomes some sort of therapist, the more vodka shots he takes. “What’s got all you dark and brooding?” 

Tony just shook his head. “Remember, like five minutes ago, when we passed that hot blond guy that looked like he could be from Olympus leaving Centerpointe?” 

Rhodey started at him perplexed. Then dragged his hands to his face and groaned. He slowly dragged his hands away and turned to Tony. “You know how those bastards at Phi Delta Theta are our sworn enemies?” 

“The fuck does this conversation have to do with those little shits?”

Rhodey just raised an eyebrow. That’s all it took for Tony to understand. “Please tell me he is just a random member and not a very crucial and important part of the frat.”

“You absolute little shit, the guy you were ogling is the whole ass president of Phi Delta Theta.” 

Now it was Tony’s turn to groan and cover his face with his own hands. “Why does this happen to me? I swear I used to have the best luck. Now it feels like everything’s going wrong.” Rhodey comfortingly pats his back. 

That night he went to bed fully knowing he was going to have the _worst_ hangover when he woke up. Sure enough, the Wednesday morning sun woke him up. He groaned and swallowed the Advil he had so kindly left himself. Tony looked at the time, 8:30 the clock read. He realized he had a whole hour before he had to go to his only class of the day. 

A class all about Shakespeare. Now, Tony wasn’t about to curse a dead man. But a whole class? About one man? He hoped to god that this class would be interesting.

Tony was not one of those STEM kids who completely belittled all the humanities courses. He understood that they were important, just like the STEM classes, or as Pepper would eloquently say, the arts and humanities are an essential element for education.

So, for one of his electives this year, he decided he would branch out and take one of them. Tony did not know what he thought that day, as he was looking at options, one caught his eye, INTRODUCTORY TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S LITERATURE. Tony had studied Shakespeare many times, since every single year, his father would send him to a boarding school. And boy, did they love Shakespeare. Year after year, another Shakespeare play would be taught. After giving it some thought, he realized that was a huge advantage for him. The world was his oyster now. 

Tony took his time getting out of bed, taking a shower. He was a firm believer in _night_ showers, but he had a whole hour before class, he had time to kill. Tony got his first coffee of the day, even managed to eat some cereal. Rhodey would be so proud he ate breakfast. He got ready at 8:50 and decided he would go to a cafe and get another cup of coffee there to have the drink with him in class. Slowly walking, he made it to the cafe and got his cup of coffee. He thought to himself that this was all too good to be true. This day was starting well. As he made his way to the lecture, he realized he would be early. He opened his phone to make sure he got the location of the class right when he noticed it. The time of the class. He must have read it wrong. He rushed to the end of the hall. He saw kids in the seats and the professor going over a slideshow. 

Tony bustles in the room, looks for a seat and luckily finds one so near to him. He rushes over and realizes _nope_ , not luckily. The empty seat’s neighbour is the Greek god. The one from yesterday at the bar. Tony decides he would deal with this later and takes the seat. Apollo shoots him a look that could kill. Tony decided that he would be _Apollo_ in his mind.

He whispers. “Hey, what did I miss?”

“Only everything important about this course.” He scoffs, looking annoyed.

Tony turns to look at the professor, sees details of the slideshow. This class wasn’t kidding when they said INTRODUCTORY TO WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. The slideshow was essentially a summary of his life. The professor talked about where William was born, what age he got married, his wife. “Oh, no, it’s not like this is a basic knowledge of his life that I could just get from Wikipedia,” Tony says sarcastically.

Apollo’s whole body turns to look at him. “Excuse me?”

“Shit, I’m sorry, didn’t know you liked him so much. You know, it’s a little repetitive for me, since three out of four years of high school we did his literature. I’ve heard it all. His entire life story. Guess I didn’t miss that much.” 

Blue-eyed-hottie looks at him, “We are not talking about this. We are in the middle of an important lecture. I paid money to listen to this professor talk about Shakespeare for two hours every Wednesday as did you.” 

“Oh, yeah, I’m a trust fund baby, so not really for me I guess.” Tony mentally slapped himself as he said that, god, what was happening to him? 

Apollo looks at him. 

“Hey, I’m full of surprises, very unpredictable. You know, don’t judge a book by its cover and all that.”

“I literally couldn’t care less about your surprises, focus on the lecture.” 

“C’mon, I could tell you all about it over coffee. How about it? After class? At the coffee shop near the library?” 

“You are holding a cup of coffee, I don’t think you need more. Not to mention, I don’t know your name, who you are. But I do know that you don’t care about your education. And that's enough for me to say n—”

“Tony Stark,” the professor calls out, as she reads off a paper, “Would you like to share with the class what you are discussing while my presentation?” 

Without even skipping a beat, Tony evaluates the slideshow, the title in all bold, SHAKESPEARE’S LANGUAGE. “I was mentioning to my seat neighbor here, how crazy it is that Shakspeare has been credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with introducing the English language with about 3,000 words.” 

The professor nods at him, “That is all true Mr. Stark, and you mention a very good point. Everyone, please look at the person seated next to you, that person will be your partner for the rest of this class whenever we do projects. Be acquainted with them.” Tony looks at Apollo and with his smug little smile, winks at him. As the professor wraps up the class and bids everyone a farewell. As everyone leaves the lecture, Tony and Apollo stay in place.

“I’m Steve Rogers. And shit, you are Tony Stark. The Tony Stark. As in the president of Delta Sigma Phi, you know our fraternities have been rivals since forever, it’s practically imprinted in our handbook.” Steve stared at him with his eyes wide open.

Tony smiles at him, “Well, you know what they say about change.” He brings his hand up for a handshake. _This_ is good. Maybe finally he and Steve can end the long-standing rivalry. Does that make him a bad president if he doesn’t even know what this long standing feud is about? He just _knows_ that they hate them. But for what? 

Steve stands up so quickly that it makes Tony’s head hurt. God, with his iron deficiency he would have passed out if he stood up that fast. Cautiously, Tony stands up. Steve takes one look at him and runs. _Well, fuck my life,_ Tony thinks.

A few days later, Tony was standing in the kitchen with Pepper. Throughout the house were students drinking out of red solo cups. Their fraternity decided to host the start of a school year party. The house was slowly getting filled in, more people going out to the backyard. Tony had previously lost a bet with his brothers, which meant he was the sober monitor at the party. So all the alcohol use was controlled by him. Pepper was talking about her interesting elective. Peter Parker, a housemate ran up to him. 

“A couple of guys from Phi Delta Theta are at our front door, they’re saying that they brought booze.” 

Tony looked at Pepper. “What did I tell you? Being a sober monitor is _hard work_.” 

Pepper nodded solemnly. “Oh, for sure, dealing with guys who brought booze is _such_ a hardship.” 

Tony ran off to the front porch. “Rogers! What can I do for you?” He crossed his arms and looked at him.

“Brought a peace offering,” he points to all the booze he and his housemates were holding.

Tony glared at him. It was not unusual for other frats to join another’s party. Tony looked through the window and made contact with Rhodey. Rhodey just shrugged at him. “Fuck, fine only because you brought booze.” He leads them to the kitchen area where all the drinks are laid out and goes to find his friends.

Later, when people are leaving Tony notices that the house is surprisingly not that dirty. Ever since Tony got the position of president, he has gotten the brother to clean up after themselves more frequently, but more often than not the house is still a mess.

Items were thrown away in huge quantities after-parties are usually the red plastic cups and aluminium cans. Since this party brought in a large audience, these are scattered all over the house. At this point in the night, there are a few people left in the backyard and that's it. Most of the brothers have already gone to sleep. He collects all the cups and brings them to the trash. 

That’s when he sees him. He’s holding a garbage bag and depositing all the cups left on the coffee table in the living room. Now, Tony is always appreciative when people clean up at a party. He’s the one throwing it, his house is the one that’s getting trashed so it’s always nice to see people helping to tidy it up. 

But fraternity rivalries are ridiculous, so the mere thought of Steve helping is making his blood boil. He walks up to Steve, his footsteps thudding. “What do you think you’re doing, Rogers?”

Steve looks up at him for where he was reaching over to reach a cup that was placed in the freaking plant pot. What was wrong with these people? Who honestly thought, oh, I have to put my drink down, _hmm_ that plant pot seems like the best option. There was a perfectly standing coffee table right there! Tony’s thought process stops when Steve smiles shyly at Tony. 

“I know that if this party was thrown at our house, I would be furious if nobody helped around.” He looked around the room, and Tony noticed that nobody had stuck around to help. Not even his brothers. Now that hurts. He would be yelling at them tomorrow. Tony made a list of his options. HOW TO CLEAN YOUR HOUSE @ 4 AM ON A FRIDAY NIGHT.

1) Do it yourself. (You’re stubborn as hell, why would you let this random guy help you)  
Let the random guy help. (Although this random guy is his rival.)   
2) Just accept defeat, Tony. (You need all the help you can get.)  
3) Tell him no, don’t clean it yourself and wait until tomorrow to yell at his housemates to clean it. (Pros: No cleaning from himself, no dealing with Steve. Cons: Brothers will be mad, and the house will be dirtier for even longer.)

“Okay, you take this side and I’ll take the other and we will meet in the middle,” Tony says, waiting for Steve to reject his idea. He surprises him by just nodding and carrying on to retrieve cups.

They work in silence for the next twenty minutes. Tony cleans the floor from where drinks have spilled and Steve gathers all leftover items. Tony decides to break the silence. “You mind if I put some music on?” Tony asks imploringly. Steve looks shocked. “What about your brothers, won't they wake up?” 

“They could probably sleep through an alien invasion if it came down to it. Anyways stop deflecting.” Tony takes his phone out of his pocket and opens Spotify. “What kind of music do you listen to?” 

“Oh, you probably won’t like it, god knows everyone living under my roof hates it.” Tony raises an eyebrow, what could possibly be so bad? He was probably overreacting. His thoughts stop when Steve says, “it’s EDM.” Tony looks at him shocked. 

“Do you actually like it?” Who would want to genuinely listen to music that’s just asking to give you a headache?

Steve nods. 

“You’re lying. There’s no way. Of all the years I’ve been living, I don’t think I’ve met one person who has genuinely liked that garbage.”

Steve gasps. “ _Well_ , I like it. And stop acting like your music taste is so superior.”

“I am not _acting_ , I just know it’s _superior_. Here let me put you on something.” He clicks on his phone and finally, his speakers start playing music. 

“Please, tell me you did not just say ‘let me put you on something’ to just play Kid Cudi.” 

“Rogers, just listen to this masterpiece. Do you want to hear a fact? Mozart composed the song Pursuit of Happiness but he felt like it was too emotional and raw so he passed it onto Kid Cudi and now we have one of the greatest songs ever written.” He smirked smugly, waiting for Steve to oppose him. 

Steve threw his head back and began to laugh. “Sure, Tony.” He tied the garbage bag and set it onto the floor. “I should probably head back home now.” He started to head for the door and waved goodbye. Once again Steve moves way too fast for Tony to even comprehend what was happening. How did he do that? Was he secretly the fastest man alive? 

When the next Wednesday came, Tony sat down in his seat and turned to Steve to thank him for helping him clean up. As he opened his mouth, Steve looked at him coldly. 

“I don’t want to hear whatever you're going to say, this is class time.”

Tony turned to face the front of the classroom. What was up with Rogers? It’s like every time they moved one step forward they also took four huge steps backward. If that’s how Steve wanted to do it, _fine_. Tony would treat him the same. 

As their lecture finished, Tony looked at Steve coldly. “I was going to say thank you for helping me clean up and offer a coffee to repay, but since you’re acting like a disgruntled pelican, I will just leave you with my words. Have a nice day, _Rogers_.” Tony stood up and walked out of the class with his head straight forward and with a posture that his boarding school headmaster would be overjoyed at.

————————

_One year earlier_   
_First Term (September-December)_

_October_

Tony can honestly say he was shocked when they were assigned partners. Why did he have to sit next to Steve Rogers? Tony’s fascination with Apollo begins to dissolve as the weeks pass by. Steve would always ignore him in class. As soon as they would get dismissed he would be out of his seat and already halfway to the exit. Tony was beginning to get annoyed, sure their fraternities had some sort of rough history, but what had he done to him personally? 

Tony started to follow some sort of routine. He had classes every single day of the week except for Thursday. Which quickly became his favourite day of the week. If Thursday was his favourite day, Wednesday’s were becoming his least favourite. Sure, he didn’t mind the lessons but Steve Rogers glaring at him continuously got boring fast. Although, they were yet to have any group projects. So far, all the assigned partners had to do was discuss with each other. Tony thought finally luck was on his side, and he and Steve would not have to be roped in to finish a project. Tony noticed whenever they had to hand in a paper, Steve would always hand it in late. That was not a good sign for him being his partner for projects. Also, why was he getting away with this? Every time he would hand in a paper late the professor would just smile up at him and thank him for handing it. 

_Of course_ , when Tony finally came to terms that he didn’t have to work with Rogers, karma would hit them. 

He got to class on Wednesday earlier than Rogers which was a first. He took his place and waited. When Rogers finally showed up, he was obviously coming from a workout. Objectively, Tony knew Steve was hot. But the shirt he was wearing was working for his body, it was tight and showed off his muscles. Tony was interrupted from his thoughts when Steve rushed into the seat next to him. 

“Did I miss anything?”

“Oh, how the tables have turned.” Steve looked at him annoyed but he shrugged him off, “nope, she’s setting up a PowerPoint to discuss the new assignment.”

Steve pushed into his way even further. “Another assignment? We just did one last week.” 

Now it was Tony’s turn to look annoyed. “ _No_ , the class finished an assignment two weeks ago, you finished an assignment last week.” Just then the professor claps her hands to gain the attention of the students.

The professor goes on about the project, while Tony spaces out. He finally gets sucked in to listen when the professor announces that for their assignment they would be working with their seat partner. 

God, why did people still do this shit? It wasn’t middle school they could easily make their own partner but nope, they are back to the old bullshit. 

The professor then began to read a list of what topics were appropriate for presenting. She then placed the list on her desk and told everyone to write their name and their partners next to the one they would present. “Go fast, and put our names down for anything you like.”

Steve looked at him with worry. “You sure you're not going to get pissy if it’s something that I choose?”

“Rogers, just go fast before they are all taken.” 

As a crowd began to form at the teacher's desk, Rogers quickly made it back to his seat. “We are doing ‘How to consider authorial intention, historical context, and present relevance,’ how about we split it up? Then send each other the documents to add some notes.” 

A couple of days later, Tony’s in his room sending his draft to Steve for him to add notes. Steve hasn’t even sent him his outline yet. At this point, Tony is seriously considering docking points off for his peer review. He decides he has had enough and sends Rogers a text.

_Tony: i have sent my outline and draft to you, r u going to add notes or nah? seriously questioning if i will be getting a response from you. pull your fucking weight or we are going to fail this stupid project_

Tony will probably regret that message tomorrow, but at the moment he is quite happy with his wording. Of course, Rogers ruins it all with his text.

_apollo: It’s a little bit worrying that you are up at this hour. I’ve seen your documents and added notes. I can say I’m pleasantly surprised that your punctuation and grammar are impeccable but reading your texts, I am now questioning it all._

_Tony: r u joking? i just had to yell at you over text to finally get an answer from you? NOT TO MENTION,,,,,,, that you are literally up at this house too???? kinda hypocritical of you, Rogers_

_apollo: Are you drinking? What is with those excessive commas? I’m sorry that I haven’t been working on this project, it’s been a long week. I will send my outline and draft to you very soon._

_Tony: the notes you added were dumb_

_apollo: Admit the notes were good, Tony. It’s okay to be wrong sometimes._

Tony is so close to flinging his phone against his wall, although he remains calm. He does not need to deal with this right now. He has to wake up early tomorrow to set up the house for the Halloween party. 

When Tony heads to the kitchen, he sees some of the fraternity brothers girlfriends handing up a banner at the porch. Thank god for them. They were honestly the true MVP’s, they always helped out at parties. And since most of his fraternity brothers weren’t shit and could barely paint a functioning banner they were saints.

They were very lucky that Halloween fell on a Saturday this year. As the day progressed, more of the brothers started getting into their costumes. Halloween was not something they took lightly, everyone always went above and beyond with their costumes. This year, he and Rhodey made an impulse purchase and bought these huge inflatable dinosaur costumes. As he and Rhodey made their grand entrance down the stars the brothers all clapped and cheered. Admittedly they looked really stupid and took a lot of space but it was funny. Pepper made them pose in the backyard and proceeded to take multiple shots of them, “for the ‘gram” was her reasoning. They proceeded to take multiple group shots with everyone in their costumes waiting for all the guests to arrive.

Tony jokingly called her a soccer mom and suddenly it stuck. Everyone was calling her name to beg to have a sleepover after practice if they scored enough goals. It was moments like these that Tony was reminded why he chose to be in a fraternity. No matter what, they had each other's backs. They sort of formed their makeshift type of family. Like how they had unwritten rules in the house that everyone just simply followed. Like how Peter was considered the younger brother to everyone, he had everyone under his thumb. Tony had dropped off a house key to Peter in the library at 2 AM way too many times to count. If it was any of the other brothers he probably would just let them crawl through their window. Or how everyone knew to give Bruce space when he started to turn green. 

As more filtered in and out, Tony started looking at all the costumes. Some people didn’t even try, slapping on a jersey or just glasses. Basically, the bare minimum, although he noticed some unique ones. Natasha had dyed her hair completely blue and was wearing a yellow rain jacket.

“ _Coraline_. Very impressive, this costume definitely would have given me nightmares when I was younger,” Tony said as he moved closer to where Nat and Pepper were standing. As soon as Tony got closer, Pepper started speaking. “Nat’s dating a guy from your sworn rival frat, do whatever you want with that information!” She quickly left and ran.

“Please, Nat, tell me you are not fraternizing with the enemy.”

Nat swiftly moved her beer from one hand to the other and brought one of her hands to pat Tony’s back. “Honestly, if you think about it, this is your rivalry there is no reason for me to hate them too “

Tony gasped and placed his hand to his heart. “You know I have a heart condition, a betrayal from my closest friend might just be the thing to make me go.”

“Shut up and listen to how great this guy is. It's like he is from a movie.” She explains how great this new guy is. Honestly Tony is happy for her. Nat scares the shit out of him. So, knowing her, she is probably dating a guy that would scare the shit out of Tony.

“Okay. Stop with the suspense. Tell me who it is. C'mon, tell me!” He pleads while Nat continues to stand there with her arms crossed at her front. “Nat, as long as it’s not their president, it’s fine.” Oh shit. That’s why she’s not telling him. The guy that is from a movie is Rogers. Oh. His inner dialogue suddenly cuts off when Nat speaks.

“Okay, it is not as bad as the president but still bad. It’s the Vice President.” 

Tony groans. “How is that any better?” Tony suddenly remembers that’s not Steve. Natasha is not dating Steve. Then he shakes that thought out of his head. It does not matter to who Steve does or does not date. Then he remembers he has no clue who the Vice President of his rival frat is. He looks at Natasha with a face of confusion.

“Bucky. Bucky Barnes is the Vice President of your rival frat. Did you honestly not know that?”

Tony’s mouth opens wide. Natasha looks at him incredulously. “No shit. I know Bucky Barnes.”

“Well obviously because he is the—”

“No, Nat, I _know, know him_.” He emphasizes on the second ‘know’ to get his point across. “You know, I see it. He used to scare everyone in school by just one look.”

Now it’s Nat’s turn to look at him with her mouth wide open. “You two went to high school together?” 

Tony shakes his head. “It was only for a semester. I was in between schools because I got kicked out of the latest boarding school. While waiting for another one to admit me, my mom sent me to a school in Brooklyn. We only had one class together. He’s pretty cool. But everyone else in that fraternity is suspicious as hell. And I stand by that.” 

Nay punched him in the shoulder. Her light punch was definitely not how Tony would describe a playful punch, but to each their own. “What was he like in high school? Tell me everything. Spill all the details.” The rest of the party Tony spends gossiping with Natasha. Until Rhodey comes to find them and finally Nat witnesses their matching costumes and bursts out laughing. Tony makes his rounds, talking to everyone and doing shots with his brothers. His eyes scan the room. He doesn’t know what he is looking for. Maybe someone to spend the night with. 

He wakes up the next day with a raging hangover. He helps tidy up the house along with Rhodey. The rest of the weekend is spent working on the project from his Shakespeare class. Also dodging phone calls from his father and going to the engineering lab to work on other class projects. He is sitting on the kitchen counter while Rhodey makes them grilled cheese. He is going on his whole rant about how Tony has to cook by himself because he is not always going to be there to always make him food. It's a rant that Tony has got many times but suddenly, it _clicks_. Rhodey will not be there all the time. Rhodey knows he wants to go into the army, he has a whole life plan. While Tony does not even know what he wants to do after university. At this point, he was thinking about doing his masters so he would not have to deal with his dad nagging him to take over the company. Then maybe get a doctorate and keep getting more doctorates until his father has enough. The moral of the story is that Tony has no clue what to do with his life. He knows he is majoring in electronic engineering. There are many jobs available for it. But, his dad had always told him that his only option was to take the company.

At this point, Tony is in his world, not having listened to Rhodey for at least a couple minutes. 

Rhodey brings both of his hands to Tony’s ears. “What are you?” 

“Stop quoting Gordan Ramsay at me.”

“Say you're an idiot sandwich, I'll give you your much deserved grilled cheese.”

Tony grumbles and quietly murmurs, “I'm an idiot sandwich.” Rhodey looks at him while he is biting into his sandwich. “You okay?”

“My dad has been calling me non-stop,” he knows Rhodey and that he does not have to give Rhodey all the details. He always understands it's like he took a class on Tony Stark 101, passed with flying colours. Or maybe he knows Tony well because they are best friends. Tony never really grew up with that, sure he was friendly with people, it just seemed like nobody wanted to be friends with him. His father would make Tony hang out with his business partner’s kids his age to build good connections. He sort of feels like an outsider with them. All the gala’s he is forced to attend, proving his point. When starting school, Tony did not expect to make as many friends as he did. It’s part of why he loves Rhodey so much, he feels like he fits in with him. Rhodey had also helped him build the bots, which added many points in his book. It's nice to have a best friend. Tony does not know what he will do when Rhodey leaves to go to the army. 

“Have you ever thought of it? Now, hear me out. If you take over the company, you can change it. You always said you had better ideas for it. Say nothing irrational, just think about it, Tony.”

That's all Tony thinks about as he tried to fall asleep. He is so out of it by the time the lecture finishes on Wednesday. The professor gives back their marks and although Tony worked hard on it he is still surprised that they got 87%. He looks over at Steve, who is smirking at Tony. Steve leans over and points to the area where she had added feedback. 

_I enjoyed how I could see the notes you two added on to each other’s documents to help each other. Good idea and especially good teamwork!_

Tony so badly wants to slap that god awful smirk away. 

“Guess my notes were especially good,” Steve says while putting his books back in his bag and standing up.

As October goes on, the group projects pile up. He discovers that he and Rogers make a good team when they are not at each other’s throats. It’s funny, in class they are all civilized but as soon as they see each other at a party, it’s on sight. He has gotten into many screaming matches with Rogers, all forgotten by the next morning because of his hangovers. 

At one point, the guys at Phi Delta Theta decide to prank them. Pranks are usually a phase that kids grow out of, but that is not the case for fraternity brothers. They’re in that sweet spot of being young enough to hold onto the childhood immaturity and having the independence to pull any prank they want. The prank they pulled is stupid and gets on Tony’s nerve. When he enters the class the next Wednesday, there's no hiding the smug face that Steve has. Honestly, could they have done anything better? Taking a pack of gelatin powder and dumping it into the toilet, has got to be the _dumbest_ prank he has ever seen.

The more projects they receive, they realize that they will have to meet up after class time to finish them. That’s a new development for Tony since he is always working alone. Even in group projects, he is the one doing all the work, he guesses that has something to do with everyone thinking that since he is smart, he will do everyone’s work for them. He sort of expects Rogers to be one of those people. He is pleasantly shocked when Rogers mentions that they should meet at the library to work on their next assignment. 

God, he cannot wait for this school year to be over.


	2. hey, isn’t this easy?

————————

_One year earlier  
—First Term (September-December)_

_November_

As he was walking to the main library, he plugged in his headphones. Some mood music for his walk to occupy him. When he opened the door, he opened his chat with Rogers.

**_apollo: Don’t be late. We need to finish this project. Be there at 6:30._ **

Tony wondered if he was reading into it too much but, c’mon. How weird was that? _Maybe_ he was analyzing that message too hard. So far the list included: 

_1\. Perfect grammar (who does that? Also not to mention, the punctuation—Steve always texted him like he was mad at him)_

_2\. 6:30 (what an odd time, why not 6:00 or 7:00?)_

_3: why was he reminding Tony? (was he questioning his intelligence, if so, that was highly unattractive._

Tony walked into the library and immediately headed to the third floor. Steve had already mentioned where he would be waiting. He goes straight to the corner where it is surrounded by shelves and sees him. Tony walks up to Steve’s table.

The next hour they work on their projects, sometimes they turn their laptop screen and comment. Very civilized. 

Tony finally decides he has had enough with the glares Steve is sending him. “There is no good reason why we can’t sit here together and work on this project.” 

“I got a good reason,” Steve replies.

“Which is?”

“I don’t like you.”

“Really? You can’t think of anything you like about me? Not even one thing.” 

“I think you seriously need to get Grammarly, what is happening with your grammar on this slide?”

Tony rolls his eyes, at least this is familiar. “This is my first draft when I go over everything I’ll fix it.”

Steve looks at him with a face of doubt.

They ended up getting a 90 on the project. 

Next week they are at the library. _What a shock_. When Steve swears and takes his phone out of the bag quickly. Tony takes his eyes off the book he was reading. He studies Steve's face and notices he is visibly paling, he asks. “Are you okay?”

Steve groans then puts his head in his hands. “I’m locked out of the house. I gave my key to Bucky last night then I forgot to ask for it back.”

“Just call your presid—” he stops halfway through the word, catching onto his mistake.

Steve raises an eyebrow, “hmm, who should I call”? 

“Ghostbusters?” Tony offers.

Steve rolls his eyes.

“Don’t you have a house manager that will let you in the house?” 

“You’re looking at him.”

Now it’s Tony’s turn to groan. “Who on earth allowed that to happen?”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“You really thought you would never be in this scenario, huh?”

“You’re really not helping.”

“Rogers, surely someone is still up and will let you in?”

Steve turns to him, “Tony, what time do you think it is?”

Tony looks at his watch and whoa, he definitely did not expect to be at the library until 4AM . “Rogers, call someone who might be awake at this time, there’s gotta be at least one person awake in that house. Steve leaves to call, Tony begins to pack up his belongings. Rogers comes back after his call, smiling. “You’re right, someone was up.”

“Sorry, can you repeat the first part? I think I missed it.”

“Nope, you only get it once.”

“Never thought I would see the day.”

“ _Now_ , don't get your ego too boasted.”

“ _Sweetheart_ , it already is.” Tony notices pink coming from Steve’s check, _weird_. They leave the library together then separate their paths to get home. They wave goodbye to each other. 

Since he and Steve have been getting along after the 4AM incident. Tony has been waiting for it to come crashing down. It’s just how Tony’s life works. Something good happens, it never lasts. Steve somehow figures out his coffee order, now when he enters the way too early class he has a hot cup of coffee. He doesn’t think too much of it. Though maybe he should. Maybe his coffee is poisoned. Rogers wouldn’t do that. Maybe it's a prank? That would make no sense. Maybe he is testing out Pavlovian response on him. It was kinda working because now Tony would get excited about Wednesday’s class. He knew he would get a fresh cup of coffee and Steve’s silent remarks in his ear.

November comes finding out new stuff about Steve. _Oh_. That also becomes a thing. Steve. Somehow his brain had switched from him always being Rogers too now just Steve.

It’s also in November where their professor decided to pull a fast one on them. She thinks that instead of working with your partner, now you’re competing with them. She assigns the whole row of students the same project. Each row a different one. 

“Are we still meeting at the library?” Steve asks as they are leaving the class. Tony nods, when he arrives to the spot, Steve is already starting the project, being very secretive about it. Honestly, Tony is confused about how the professor is not going to get bored by hearing every student talking about the same thing. Their meetings in the library still progress even though they are no longer working together. Now Tony is being the one secretive about his project. 

Steve looks over at him from where he is staring intently at his laptop. “Hacking into my laptop? Seriously, Tony?”

“What are you talking about?”

Steve reads off of his screen, “In the corner, it says, Steve Rogers: Former Favourite Student.”

It’s no secret that Tony and Steve are competing for the best spot in this class. They’re both very competitive (not to mention rivals). They have been competing with everything in class. From their marks, their seats, their discussion points. Tony smiles.

“This is a new low, you're not even denying it.”

“Maybe you will finally learn the valuable lesson that is; don’t make your passwords so obvious.” 

“I mentioned that I liked the Iron Man Comics when I was younger one time!”

“Nope, Rogers, you mentioned that you were crazy obsessed with Iron Man that you covered your bedroom wall with posters.”

“I should have never told you about Iron Man.” 

“That is not what you should be getting out of this. Just don’t make your passwords so obvious, IronMan123, really?”

When Tony gets back from the library, he sees everyone is getting ready for a movie night. The big bowls of popcorn on top of the coffee table. He grabs a handful when he hears Rhodey scolding him for eating like a caveman. As he settles down, he feels his phone vibrating.

**_apollo: I am about to hack into your school account._ **

Tony grins then replies.

_Tony: normally a hacker would not let the person who they are hacking into know_

The reply comes shortly.

**_apollo: YOU CHANGED MY PASSWORD?? THE PASSWORD TO MY OWN LAPTOP?_ **

_Tony: not so much a hacker anymore me thinks_

**_apollo: You want to tell me what the new password is?_ **

_Tony: I think you need to be a better hacker, just don’t think this is the job for you you’re going to be unable to find any places of employment all because you tried to scheme your way into your acquaintance's laptop_

**apollo: Run-on sentence.**

It's sort of becoming a _thing_. Tony realizes he has a lot of things with Steve. Almost like inside-jokes. But not inside-jokes, because they most certainly are not friends. They are rivals who happen to be acquaintances in a class about a dead man. But _if they_ were friends this would be an inside-joke. Tony’s fast texts that he never double-checks for typos, grammar, punctuation versus Steve’s thoroughly checked texts. 

_Tony: is editing my grammar really important now? Once again you are a horrible hacker_

**_apollo: Have the decency to help a former friend_ **

Tony takes a second. Former friend? Is that what they were? Had he missed them being friends? And now they had already moved on? In the middle of his crisis, someone complains about his phone screen so he rushes to his room. 

_Tony: maybe if I wasn’t a former friend, I would give it to you_

**_apollo: Does frenemy work better for you?_ **

_Tony: nope say I’m your friend_

**_apollo: fine, my friend would you be so kind as to share my password_ **

_Tony: tonystarkisthebest1234_

**_apollo: You’ve got to be kidding me._ **

_Tony: Nope it was a very strong password just like the person it is after_

**_apollo: I didn’t even know passwords were allowed to be so long_ **

Their little feud for the project carries on. Towards the end of the month when they are sitting at Steve’s spot in the library Tony realizes something. “Steve. Steve. Steve.” He was trying to get his attention. “We’ve been so busy trying to be better that we completely overlooked all the other people on our row. All the other candidates!”

Steve looks over at him. “Who? You’re seriously worried about people on our row? Thor Odison? He’s too busy being pretty and riding off the success of his TikTok fame.”

Tony raises an eyebrow. “So that’s your type? Pretty guys?” Steve rolls his eyes, “I like what I like, simple as that.”

The day before their presentation Tony texts Steve.

_Tony: we still on for drinks?_

They had decided to get over their nerves for their presentation tomorrow they would meet up for drinks. This was a harder obstacle than Tony would have thought since they couldn’t be seen together. It would wreak havoc on their frats. In the end, they had decided to meet at a club far enough from their university that they wouldn’t meet people they knew. 

They sit in a booth together. As soon as they sit down Steve starts, “I’m surprised you agreed to this.”

“Well, I was contemplating it, but I am not opposed to your performance tomorrow when you are hungover.”

“Try to disadvantage me all you want, I am still going to win.”

“What exactly are you winning, Steve?” Shit, shit, shit. It’s only Steve in his brain, not with his mouth. 

Rogers leans in. “Obviously, I will win by getting a higher mark.”

“It’s cute that you think that’s going to happen. Maybe I should let you think you have the upper hand.” 

The rest of the night carries on. They carry one conversation then another as the drinks they consume add up. Tony convinces Steve that they should go dance after Steve’s protest on how he doesn’t want to. They make their way to the dance floor, Steve has no clue what to do with his hands, it shows. He awkwardly bops his head while Tony laughs, feeling the drinks settle in.

“You’re the president of a whole fraternity and you don’t dance.” 

“No, I can dance.”

It’s endearing how much Steve is trying. He puts his hands on Steve’s hips. “Watch me. You have to loosen up your hips.” Steve being tense under Tony’s touch is certainly not helping. “Stop being so tense.” 

Steve watches Tony moving his hips then takes a sip of his beer, “I am not tense.” 

By the end of the night, it’s all eyes blurry and warmth under his fingertips. Tony doesn’t think about the warmth of Steve’s body near him, he doesn’t think about the glint in Steve’s eye when he speaks. He doesn’t. 

When their professor reveals that the highest mark in the class is a tie between two students, Steve and Tony immediately turn to each other. He’s nervous. He knows his presentation was good, but Steve’s was great. He doesn’t even care if the highest mark was him. As the paper gets handed to all the students, he begins to drum his fingers against the chair.

He receives his paper then immediately turns it face down onto the desk.

Steve gets his back then turns to Tony. “Are you okay?” 

“Yes, absolutely.” What is wrong with him? It’s just a mark. Tony’s never been nervous to look at a mark before. This is a new feeling. He locks his eyes with Steve. “Could you please flip it?” 

Steve looks at him apprehensive but nods. He turns the page and breaks into a huge smile. “We did it! Got the highest mark! What do you know, we still got it.” Tony sighs with a look of relief.

He pushes through the rest of the month if he doesn’t think about the feeling he felt they won’t catch up to him. It’s what he always had done. He was too busy to process anything in his life. When his parents would get into screaming matches, when Howard would leave for business trips for months, he would just focus on his AP courses instead. As long as he directed his energy elsewhere, everything would be fine. That’s what he is going to do now.

————————

_One year earlier  
—First Term (September-December)_

_December_

“You know I thought you were going to be one of those huge pretentious dicks who think the humanities classes are useless.”

“Did you really think so low of me?”

Steve smiles at him under the yellow library light across the table where all their books are spread out. “My first impression of you was that you were a—what did you call it? A trust fund baby?”

“Okay, that’s fair.” Tony looks down at the book of poetry they are currently meant to be analyzing. But every time he reads the same sentence over and over again, not retaining any of the information. “I don’t think the humanities are useless, I’m not going to just think lowly of someone if they're a liberal arts major. What even is your major?” Tony asks but he has an inkling he knows what Rogers is majoring in, the paint on all his clothes is a dead giveaway. Not to mention the leftover paint smudges on his hands and face. Sometimes he would see a smudge of paint on his arm. He would want to go over it with his own fingers. He shook those thoughts out of his head. 

Rhodey forces Tony to go to a party, clearly Tony’s excuses to not attend were not working. As they enter, he glances around the room, unsure of what he is looking for. Halfway through his look over the room, he spots Steve. Who is in a conversation with a dude wearing a football jersey and Bucky.

Oh, how a difference a month makes. If it was October, Tony easily would have marched up to Steve, then proceeded to yell at him. If it was November, he would simply just turn his eyes anywhere else. Now it’s December, Tony simply just nods and shyly smiles. Steve lifts up his beer. 

“Did you hear?” Is what Tony hears when Natasha finds him. It’s like she’s got tunnel vision for spotting Tony at a party. He can never seem to find her but she can spot him easily. You would think her natural red hair would make her more noticeable, but she’s like a secret spy who hides in plain sight. Tony excitedly turns to Nat, always ready to gossip with her. _Sue him_ , the drama was petty and childlike but it was entertaining. Plus, Nat always seems to know everyone’s business. Once again, secret spy. He shakes his head to indicate he has no idea what she’s talking about.

“Clint—”, ahh yes, Clint Barton, if Nat was a secret spy he was definitely secret spy number two. Who also happened to be in Steve’s frat. Which was his rival frat. Nat was killing him, what was about to do, go join the frat? _Stop being petty Tony_ , he realizes when he doesn’t hear a word Natasha said to him. 

“What happened to Barton?”

“Tony. He is married. As in, he has a whole ass wife! We are literally children and now you’re telling me people in our age group are getting married?”

Tony’s mouth drops. “Hold up. Do you mean engaged? 

“Nope, he literally has a wife,” she replies.

“Nat, how do you even know this?” It’s safe to say, Tony is shocked. The longest relationship he had was probably with the bottle of ketchup in the fridge, it has been in there for months. 

“Well, I was talking to Bucky.” Tony raises an eyebrow which causes Nat to punch his shoulder, _and ow_. “Apparently when they were in the locker room, his teammates noticed he had a wedding band on the necklace he wears.”

Tony takes a moment. Teammates? Locker room? God, for his rival frat, he sure does no close to nothing about them. He must have not hid his confusion well since Natasha’s next sentence is about how the _football_ guys and all the people in his frat were sad they hadn’t known. He makes a point in his head to remember that they play football.. Rhodey plays football! That’s why the day before his first Shakespeare class when they entered Centerpointe he was glaring at Clint. They knew each other from football! Also being in rivals frats, but maybe Tony wasn’t the only oblivious one. Steve was just as clueless as Tony and didn’t even know it was Tony who sat next to him until the teacher said his name.

He takes a sip from his red solo cup then sees Steve. He wonders if Steve also plays football. He certainly is built for it. That’s just from an objective point, nothing else. Nat obviously sees him staring at Steve.

“Hey, you two went the entire month of November not yelling at each other at a party, don't break the streak now.” She tugs on his arm then leads the way.

Next Wednesday after class Tony finds himself at the library. With Steve. At Steve’s spot. _Just push forward, don’t have time for feelings to catch up with you, he thinks to himself_.

They continue working on their new project. “How to analyze Shakespeare’s plays on the page and in performance.”

“This is strange, isn’t it?” Steve says and turns to see Tony’s doe eyes looking up at him.

“What is?” Tony asks innocently.

“You and me. Being friends.”

“We’re not friends, Rogers.” Tony says, but he’s smiling, just a little. “Speaking of, why aren’t we friends? Why do our fraternities hate each other so much?” 

Steve looks up at him, mouth open wide. “You don’t know?” 

Tony shrugs. He knows fraternity rivalries are inevitable but they tend to be fundamentally ridiculous. Sometimes the beef between the two houses is necessary. Nobody is going to get over a physical fight or property damage. The origins vary, sometimes you live close to another house, causing a rivalry just by simple proximity. Or sometimes it would start by always competing against each other in various rec sports to get first place. 

“It’s actually really ridiculous how this rivalry is still going on. It’s a natural thing, that where fraternities are there are fraternity rivalries. Sometimes the rivalry is justified, but a brother getting punched in the face is not something to shrug off. Also not easy to justify a rivalry when the first punch was thrown in 1948. After the president of your fraternity shouted to our president something about his mom. The details are a little hazy.”

Tony started laughing. “That's what this is all about?” He said pointing in between him and Rogers. 

Steve smiled then, his cheeks turning red. “What makes this so ridiculous. Is that it doesn’t really matter why two fraternities are rivals. What makes the rivalries so ridiculous is the things they make us say and think. You hate everything about them. And it’s even more stupid when you start to nitpick every little thing about them. One time I walked by your house and saw that you hung an awful painted banner, and I thought to myself ‘Damn, their pledges suck, they can’t even paint a fucking banner’.”

“To be fair, you’re looking at our banners with an artist's eye, of course, it’s going to be bad.”

“And what eye am I supposed to be looking at it with?”

“Okay, fine, I’ll give it to you. Our banners are not the greatest.”

“Not the greatest! The number of typos I see in them! Is nobody double-checking them? How many different ways can you spell fraternity wrong?”

“Hey, it’s a long word okay? Plus it’s normally the pledges fucking up the banners.” 

Their talk was interrupted when Bucky Barnes approached their table. _No, Tony thinks it’s Steve’s table. He has no attachment to this isolated area of the library_.

“Hey, Tony,” Bucky says nicely.

“Hey, Bucky,” Tony replies. 

Steve looks back and forth between them. “Why is this so civil? This is not normal. Are you two about to fight in the library? Please don’t.”

Bucky smirks. “Calm down Stevie, Tony and I go way back.”

“ _What_?!” He turns to Tony waiting for proof, Tony nods. Steve looks like a disgruntled pelican looking back and forth again. “You two know each other?”

Bucky nods. “Remember, the year you got suspended then had to switch school—” He gets cut off by Tony.

Who points a finger at Steve. “ _You! Mr. Teacher's pet_! Got suspended? For an entire year?”

Steve puts his head in his hands as Tony deals with the shock. Bucky laughs. “God, don’t fall for his little innocent act, the stories I have.” 

Steve slowly brings his face up, “I still don’t know how you two know each other.”

“Well, Tony also got suspended from his boarding school. So while he was switching schools he went to ours for a semester. It’s actually pretty funny, y’all missed each other just by a little bit.”

Steve’s face is comical. Tony turns to Bucky. “What are you doing in the library? I don’t think I saw you ever go once in high school.” 

Bucky gives him the finger then reaches out of his pocket to give Steve the house key. “Don’t come home too late,” he says, leaving the room as fast as he entered.

“Little goody two shoes, got suspended?”

“Hey, you got suspended too.” 

“Ah, yes the parallels to our lives, we are different sides of the same coin.” 

“So what? You and Bucky act like you hate each other. Although, you guys are cool with each other. All because you had one class together in high school?”

“Yep, I say we have given some truly Oscar award-winning fights.” 

“So, that whole fight at the intramurals volleyball game was scripted?” 

“Yep, and also the fight at the coffee shop.” 

“I’m going to need time to process this new development,” Steve says, still staring intensely at Tony.

Surprisingly the next time they meet is not at the library or class. Tony quite literally runs into Steve while at the coffee shop. Their collision causes Tony to drop his phone. Sadly, the muffin he was holding onto for dear life slips out of hand. As he steadies himself, he looks up to start yelling at them about his food. When he notices he quite literally bumped into Steve. 

“I think you dropped this, you’re lucky I caught it before it fell on the ground.”

Tony is seriously contemplating if this is real life. He had been in his lab for too many long hours, that they had blended in together as one. “Thank you for your service, I shall repay you by naming my firstborn after you.”

“A simple, thank you would have worked.” 

“You’re telling me you don’t want my first born to be named after you? Going once, going twice.”

“I actually wanted to talk to you about something.” Shit. Now Tony is processing what Steve could talk to him about. Tony hadn’t even done anything all week. He’d been cooped up in the lab. “Have you been checking your emails?” What an odd question to ask. Tony thinks about the last time he even checked it. Steve continues, “obviously, by the look of your face I know it wasn’t any time recently.” 

Tony nods.

“Well, if you had checked you would see that we are starting a new project next week. It’s worth ¼ of our grade. Instead of our strictly usual seat partner, you get to choose your own. Did you want to work with each other? I honestly don’t think I’ve talked to anyone else in that class except for you. What do you think?”

“Be careful, Rogers you might become codependent on me.”

“You wish.”

“Well, for our last project, I guess I could be convinced to work with you.”

Steve rolls his eyes, “enjoy your muffin, that I helped save because of my amazing quick reflexes,” Steve says as he backs away. 

“The only reason my muffin was gonna fall was that you ran into me!” Ha, he ended up getting the last word. 

Next Wednesday, Tony accepts Steve’s offer of the coffee. As he begins drinking it, the professor goes over the last project of the semester. This year was going by really fast, he actually enjoyed it so far. A vast improvement from September Tony wishing for it to be over. Now he was dreading the exam season. Plus the extra stress added onto it by going home for Christmas break. He was excited to see his mom, not so much his dad. 

Opposite to the first time. For the last time, they have to choose a project Tony goes up and selects one for them. He quickly signs their name to Analyze Macbeth through knowledge of historical context. Tony had studied all about Macbeth in high school, it actually was his favourite Shakespeare play. 

The rest of the month is dealing with New England winter, cold nights, dark nights starting at 5. The highlight reel of the month looks like this: a snapshot of Steve grinning at a passage in Macbeth, a snapshot of Pepper, Rhodey, Nat, Peter, and him playing Clue on their Game Night. This then leads to the snapshot of Tony winning the game of Clue because while they were playing checkers he was playing chess, a snapshot of the last Karaoke Night of the year. 

They practice their presentation more times than Tony has ever practiced for anything in his life. His whole life motto had always been to just wing it. But he can see that Steve is stressed so he agrees to go through it as many times as Steve wants. It’s when they are practicing when Steve mentions he’s excited to visit his mom. In _Brooklyn_. Which means Tony is going to be in the same area as Steve. Well, there was a whole bridge that separated their Burroughs but the point still stands. Somehow the conversation shifts to obscure knowledge then, useless academic insights that they know. They both agree that all knowledge is worthwhile knowledge. 

Knowing them, they breeze through their presentation. Tony honestly can say he enjoyed this class. Although in the beginning, he was sort of acting out. But that was probably because as Shakespeare would say, “ _The lady doth protest too much, methinks_.”

He and Steve head to the library for one last time. They drop off the books they had signed out and head to Steve’s corner area. They sit there in the excitement that is that they finished their project. All the nerves and stress leaving his body slowly. 

“I actually got you something,” Tony says, reaching into his bag. “An early Christmas gift.” 

“Tony, you really didn’t have to,” Steve says, but still moves closer to Tony to get a peak. Tony drops the poorly wrapped gift in front of Steve. 

He had been walking past the bookstore when he saw the poster. He hadn’t even thought it through, Tony immediately bought the poster. 

As Steve carefully takes apart the wrapping, Tony waits. He immediately hears laughter, that’s good, right? This means that he thinks it’s funny, so Tony’s plan did work. Tony turns and Steve's smile is so bright.

“This one is definitely going on the wall,” Steve says, proudly lifting up the Iron Man poster. 

“Truly honored, that it has made it onto the wall.”

“Thank you, Tony it’s really nice of you.” Steve’s hand rests on Tony’s thigh, Tony was heating up and had no idea why. They must have turned up the heating in the library, that was the only possible solution.

Tony immediately tries to turn his eyes anywhere else, he’s always been a little bit weird when people thank him. Then with the whole Steve touching him, it added up together. 

“I actually got you something too, but it’s a little bit unconventional for a gift.” How is Steve always surprising him? He thought he was the only one with the idea of giving a gift today. Now it’s Steve’s turn to reach into his bag while the one hand resting on his thigh moves up to cover Tony’s eyes. He feels something placed into his lap, then Steve’s hand comes off of his face. He sort of missed the weird sense of heat. He looks down at his lap then throws his head back in laughter.

“Shut up! _How_?” He exclaims as he waves the DVD of Ratatouille in Steve’s face. It was only a couple weeks ago where Tony had expressed his concerns that they took the movie off of Netflix. Which caused Tony to rant about for weeks. Mainly ranting how all he wanted to do was watch it, was that too much to ask for? He had been seriously contemplating just illegally watching it from a sketchy website when Steve had yelled at him about getting viruses on his laptop. 

“I saw it while I was out doing errands, made me think of you since it’s all I’ve been hearing for the past month.”

“Thank you, I’m going to spend the entire break cherishing this cinematic masterpiece.”

Steve nods, “as you should, I honestly don’t know why this movie is such a big deal for you, I’ve never seen it.”

“Well, now that I have the physical copy of it you are welcome to come over anytime to watch it.”

“It’s a date.” Everything happened so fast. Tony’s brain finally caught up, they were close. Really close, they both looked at each other. Steve’s blue eyes staring into Tony’s brown eyes. Tony had no clue who leaned in first. All of a sudden, their lips were pressed into each other. This was good, like addictively good. Tony moved his hands to grab Steve’s face. Steve deepens the kiss, Tony can hear tiny noises that he is making all because of Steve. 

Steve’s lips and tongue felt nice and hot against his. His skin was radiating heat. Steve’s hands came to Tony’s waist, Steve wrapped his arms around Tony’s body. 

Steve pulled away then, started sucking the area on his neck. Steve proceeded to kiss the area. He was driving Tony insane, Tony makes a noise that is much louder than he thought it would be. Steve pulls back, he’s breathing heavily with wide eyes, his cheeks bright red. Steve stares, “this was not a smart idea.” 

Tony’s brain is still catching up when he hears Steve’s apology and some curses. Steve is moving backward, grabbing his bag, then rushing in a way that he is not running but is certainly faster than a walk. It was all happening so fast, that Tony stands still until Steve completely disappears from his line of sight.

“ _Oh_ ,” Tony says, in the empty library corner, touching one hand to his lips.


End file.
